Martial law is put in place at Callegari

It was last Wednesday that I first heard about it. I had come up to the barn to meet the farrier. A fellow boarder asked “did you hear that there are cases of strangles here at the barn?” I hadn’t heard.

Strangles conjures up all kinds of bad images. I asked if she knew which horses specifically, but she didn’t know. During the 2 hours I was there that day, a “confirmed case” horse was loaded up and taken to the vet.

I didn’t know much about strangles, other than the fact that I should be afraid of it. The farrier told me that it wasn’t life threatening, and that young horses were in a lot more danger than older horses. Starman is 13 years old, hardly a young horse. Marker is 23 years old, and was a show horse most of his life, so he’s probably been exposed to everything at least once. I relaxed a bit. Fortunately, their stalls are configured so that they can only touch noses with each other. Out in the pasture, however, is a different story.

The barn owner/manager – Candace – called everyone with an update. She said it was more like an equine flu. There are over 80 horses stabled at our barn. There were half a dozen confirmed cases – horses that were running a temperature of at least 106. Dozens more had been “exposed”. Starman and Marker had both been exposed since there had been confirmed cases in horses pastured right next to them. They had opportunity to touch noses over the fence, and I’ve often seen Starman reach through the fence boards to drink out of the neighboring water trough (typical silly Starman behavior, even though he has a perfectly good water trough in his own pasture).

Candace went into action with a plan. No grooming or tacking up in the common areas – do it in your stall. Candace put large orange signs on stalls which had sick horses and exposed horses. No one was to touch those stalls or those horses. Hand sanitizer everywhere. She learned that humans can carry it as well as horses, so everyone must wash/sanitize if they touch the arena gate, the round pen gate, stall doors, etc. No hand grazing on the barn grounds. Stay away and keep your horse away from “orange” areas of the barn. Obviously no “guest” horses can come on the property.

She called every boarder individually to talk to them. Boarders are welcome to ride and come take care of their horse, but the strict sanitation procedures must be followed. We are discouraged from just hanging out, as this increases the chance of moving germs from one place to another. Everyone was told to watch their horse for symptoms.

The horses have been locked inside for a few days anyway since it has rained and the pastures are muddy. Candace has been replacing the water troughs in the infected pastures. Last night I took both Boys’ temperature, and then put them in the round pen for some much needed exercise.

I feel pretty good with the measures in place, and I’m grateful that Callegari jumped right on top of the problem. I think my Boys will be okay, but I don’t want to be responsible for spreading it.